Turkey is proving to be one of the more progressive mobile markets in
the Middle East with revenue from mobile data services growing quickly.
This has not gone unnoticed by the operators, with Turk Telekom,
Turkcell and Vodafone Turkey all looking towards a future where 5G will
become increasingly important. In preparation, the operators have formed
various partnerships with solution providers and in 2017 Turk Telekom
established a 5G Centre of Excellence which will focus on the research
and development of 5G in Turkey.

Interestingly, as a result of the three major mobile operators all
launching 4G LTE services in April 2016; Turkey has witnessed a dramatic
decline in 3G mobile subscriptions. In contrast, subscriptions to 4G
services have risen quickly. The operators are forging ahead and
developing additional solutions for the LTE network, with for example,
Vodafone Turkey creating a Licensed-Assisted Access (LAA) network in
early 2017, in conjunction with Huawei and Qualcomm.

While mobile broadband becomes increasingly popular in Turkey the fixed
broadband network is also progressing sharply with a clear direction now
towards fibre broadband. While Turk Telekom continues to dominate this
sector, Turkcell's Superonline is also growing its fibre broadband
customer base. By Q1 2017 it had increased its fibre broadband customers
by 16%, year-on-year. In total there are now around 300 kilometres of
fibre length deployed throughout Turkey, covering more than 80 cities.

Turkey also has excellent international infrastructure with links to
many of international cable networks due to its geographic location
between Europe and Asia. While the civil upheaval in the region has
impacted upon Turkey's economy and stability; in 2017 the telecoms
sector is still showing promising signs of progress.

Key developments:

Turkey is producing its own domestic communication satellite with
qualification testing expected to begin in 2018.

Pre-paid mobile subscriptions are in decline while post-paid are
growing.

Millions of homes have now been passed by the fibre broadband network
in Turkey.

Mobile penetration in Turkey is close to reaching 100% in 2017.

Turkey is positioning itself as an important node for data traffic on
a global scale.

Turkey is very proactive in the development e-government services and
solutions.<br/>